Twinsolar

Logo TwinSolar / funded by European Union

Reflecting on an engaging experience at “TwinSolar territorial seminar” where academics, industries, knowledge transfer manager, policy makers and community organizers gathered to discuss the future of Research & Innovation for energy transition in La Reunion and remote areas.

On April 25th, at TESIS La Ruche lieu d’innovation, Nexa and University of La Reunion invited stakeholders of the energy transition to a territorial seminar in the frame of the TwInSolar project.

Mathieu David, director of PIMENT-Lab (University of La Reunion) and coordinator of Twinsolar presented the project ambition :  to achieve massive integration of solar renewables in non-interconnected areas such as La Reunion and remote territories. To do so, TwInSolar was designed to fill the research gaps, build partnerships and new projects at EU level and to share the lessons learnt with other island and remote areas.

Within Twinsolar, Nexa is in charge of ensuring the participation of local stakeholders in the design of knowledge transfer, collaborative opportunities, future research topics. To do so, Nexa with the help of the University designed this seminar into 3 sequences:

Workshop #1

Getting inspiration from R&I best practices learnt from Twinsolar partner territories : Baden Wurtenberg and Copenhagen/Zealand. 8 remarkable initiatives were presented by Philippe Holstein from Nexa to the participants which were invited to discuss the replicability/adaptability to the context of La Reunion.

Workshop #2

How to develop Open/Collaborative projects around Terre-Sainte Campus’ microgrid? Presented by Josselin Le Gal La Salle, post-doc researcher at PIMENT-Lab, the micro-grid project aims at turning the Terre-Sainte Campus into a Research and Innovation Facility where researchers and innovators would build projects towards energy self-sufficiency at the campus scale.

Round-table: Discussing the R&I roadmap of the University of La Reunion

Charles Voivret from PIMENT-Lab presented the vision of the University of La Reunion in terms of R&I priorities : Reduce, both during design phase and operation, performances uncertainties of solar systems to increase share of Variable Renewable Energy. The vision and related projects/ideas were presented and their interest was tested with participants.

This seminar opened fruitful collaboration perspectives which will be soon materialized. Stay tuned!